IKEA

Did you know that you can take a ferry from Manhattan’s Pier 11 to Brooklyn’s Ikea? My friend Annie had to buy some picture frames and we decided to make a night of it by taking the ferry across the East River to the huge Swedish megastore. I’ve only been to Ikea a handful of times, but I always hear SO MUCH about their meatballs (in fact, one writer from The Atlantic actually made an entire meal from food purchased at Ikea). I had absolutely no idea that the Ikea in Brooklyn had a large cafeteria – I thought there was only a small food court area that sold soft serve and their frozen foods. When Annie told me we were going to eat Swedish meatballs there, I was wondering how we were going to eat them because I thought they only sold them frozen; however, we went up the escalator and walked to Ikea’s huge cafeteria!

People actually go to Ikea to eat dinner – they have no intention of shopping and just want to eat Ikea’s meatballs…isn’t that CRAZY?! We picked up trays (awesome) and immediately saw all these awesome desserts (double awesome):

There were a lot of things I wanted to eat (a problem I always have when I go to cafeterias with multiple stations) – there was macaroni and cheese, chicken tenders, stuffed salmon, tarts, tortes, cake, even baby food! We were originally going to get two orders of Swedish meatballs and one order of chicken tenders, but we decided to all order the Swedish meatballs:

The Swedish meatballs plate comes with 10 Swedish meatballs (the guy had a heavy hand with our plates because it was later in the night), mashed potatoes, gravy, and lingonberry sauce. I also impulsively got an elderflower juice box. The Swedish meatballs had a really synthetic texture (like, there was no way that meatball was coming apart) but was nicely seasoned and I ate them all. It almost tasted like Thanksgiving (a really really bad Thanksgiving) because of the slightly tangy lingonberry sauce, meatball, mashed potato, and gravy combination. We also shared this torte:

The torte had pleasing textures – very creamy chocolate with crunchy wafers and possibly a little coconut. After we returned our trays, we walked around and looked through their children’s department (all of their stuff is so cute, especially their fabric!) We found awesome hats, puppets, and…an abacus:

Annie found her frames and we caught the last ferry back into Manhattan. The ferry ride is really nice and is a nice way to see the New York skyline and the statue of liberty (although I got a little seasick on my way to Ikea). Ikea also has a bunch of specials – Tuesday was Swedish Meatballs for $2.49 and Thursdays is Ribs night! Thank you, Badrul, for dinner!